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The Curve might be pushing its limit (I don't have the water processing numbers) but the Octopus will not have a problem. I am reaching the limit of the Octopus 150 on my 120g with about 20 gallons of water in a 40B sump. Still, I downsized to this skimmer form a 8" Bubbleblaster operated skimmer (Akin to a SRO-3000INT) .

RapidLED. 90g Tank kit.
https://www.rapidled.com/90g-tank/
I have built those kits but it was years ago.

You can piece it together a bit cheaper or use cheaper diodes but I found these to be solid.
 
Oh, when skimmer shopping:

Not all manufacturers/retailers make this readily available but if you can find it, yay!

Water processing (after conversion - caution, they like to give you pre-conversion numbers) determines the volume the skimmer can accommodate. Normally, you want at least 2X that actual system volume. A hair under will not hurt to much. For example the Octopus processes 196gph so it handles up to about 98g of actual water volume. I am sitting at about 90-100g of actual water volume for my system after rock/sand volume loss. However, having 1.75X is not the end of the world and if meeting a specific hard budget it can work. The absolute minimum would be 1-1.5X as most skimmer-available organics are assimilated into the biomass in an hour.

Some hobbyist put a bigger emphasis on water processing rates (like Geoff). They sacrifice dwell time, air draw and a heck-load of electricity to get more passes through a skimmer. Personally, I find that pushing higher numbers kinda hits a limit. 2X processing rate is contact about every 30minutes. 4X is ever 15 minutes, 6X is every 10minutes. Pushing past this (for me) just is not worth it as a 50% gain only gives you 3 minute difference often at 100w interval jumps the electrical consumption. However, "splurging" from 2X to 3X or 4X is 10-15 minutes with often using 20-50w. Me, I personally try to get the most air/water efficiency while using the least amount of energy.

Air draw/flow determines how much of the "filter media" is pushed into the skimmer. Kinda sets the efficiency of the skimmer. The more air, the better (but there is a limiting return as the air makes other design changes needed). Still, you can have billions of liters per hour of air and if it lack the water processing ability, then it will be undersized. I always want the most air for the given processing as long as the processing meets my needs.
 
RapidLED is good. i have used them for ballasts.

i have also used aquastyleonline.com. they have inexpensive kits. so far they have been fine. they tend to piece their kits together in parallel instead of series, that is why they are cheaper. only a problem if one of the LED's go out. it can cause problems with cascading. in series is better, but this is just for learning and seeing what is involved. when done the "test" light can be used for a frag tank or something else.

doing 2X tank volume for skimmer is great and is possible with smaller tanks. it is when tanks get bigger that scale gets messed up with todays skimmers. it is easy to get a skimmer today that can move 4-500gph. but to get above that is difficult.

when you have to go to skimmers that can really move water, processing more than 2X is almost accidental. if you look at the Reef Octopus elite 220SSS which is rated to about 300g heavy can only process 344gph! this is a $1000 skimmer. this is not much different than the others. yes, the dwell times are great, but only 1X is not going to cut it. running 2 skimmers does not work well either.

G~
 
The VarioS-6S says it can handle 528gph. I would be about 250g. I see them stretching to 300... but not for heavy bioload. Octopus kinda does that 2X is "heavy" for them and 1X is "light". Granted, pulling 70scfh of air is beckett-level air draw. Still, when I see "space saver" I know it will be handicapped.


I have only seen two skimmer working ONCE. It was a 600-800ish gallon LFS system. They had H&S skimmers too (awesome old Eheim powered recirc skimmers) with two in their "pool/sump" (A 300g rubbermade tub). They just kept both skimmer running as they were only really about 300g system skimmers. When the fish shipments came in, both would spool up and work. When they sold stock and were nearing empty, one would completely stop producing and the upstream one did its thing.
 
Thank you Geoff and FutureDoc for the info.

Looking at rapidled it looks like their 90 gallon reef kits are 48 leds. Would that be adequate for an LPS and softie tank with a few SPS corals
Oh yes. Plenty. LED will grow the SPS like a charm.

My only real knock against the LED was the look/color balance. You *can* spend a lot of diode/watts/time chasing spectrum/color look. I always ended up supplementing with additional colors or T5. By that time, I was running within a few watts of Metal Halide. Thus I kept going back to halides.
 
i would use soldered if you are used to soldering at all.

i would also use a liberal amount of conforming fluid after you are done soldering. somebody here told me about this stuff and it is a must for our SW environments. i used the brush on stuff, but most prefer the spray on.

swapping out LED's is not that bad if you decide to change the spectrum a little. having multiple channels will also allow you to adjust the spectrum some, but this adds more complexity to the build.

G~
 
Seems like the manufacturers could make them tall enough for sumps and skimmers.
I have the same problem with my stand, not enough room to swing a cat so to speak.
I hear ya Jerry, most of the mass produced cheap stuff Pet stores sell make Sauder look like high end craftsman stuff. If you do find a place that will carry or build stands that really work it costs your 1st born and sign over your 401K :(
 
:thumbup:

Awesome, awesome!
 
Great news Tim! Now let's see how 'time dilation' works as you begin drooling over getting your new tank 'wet'. :D I hope all comes together quickly and easily for you Folks,
Hack
 
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